The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 481: Time Away

"Are you okay?" Freya asked.

After a whole two weeks of training with Felix, which was a total of about fourteen hours in the real world, Kiro finally logged off. He had slept for eighteen hours straight, he had not realised just how mentally exhausted the whole experience made him.

To make his theory more solid, the scars he had gained fighting the general had manifested in real life. There was a scar across his eye now but fortunately, he could still see.

"Are you sure there isn’t anything we can do?" Freya asked again.

Kiro smiled, "well no, it would take you guys quite a long time to level up, so just keep supporting from the stands."

He was sat at their patio, having breakfast and soaking up the sun. Truly this was a kind of heaven, it felt good not smelling blood and being in alert that there could be a surprise attack coming from anywhere. This was it for him, this is the peace he wanted to protect.

"Look at my baby boy, I want to find whatever did that to your handsome face and beat it to a pulp." She balled her fists.

"Honestly mum, I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt."

"How can I not worry? We were all watching, this war was broadcasted live and when you entered that portal, the live feed couldn’t follow you in. We had no idea what was happening, all sorts of thoughts..."

Kiro was all too familiar with it too, the pain of losing people you love. A parent losing their child must have been ten times that.

"I’ll be careful, we will win this thing and come back home safe, I promise."

He was just making promises to get her to stop worrying. He genuinely thought they had a chance, and if all goes to plan, it would end without casualties.

Freya caressed the side of his face with a sad but hopeful smile. She got up and kissed him in the forehead.

"Your girlfriend is here." She accepted Isla’s greetings and left them alone.

Kiro quickly shot up from the chair, fixing his shirt and trying to button them up quickly. She held his hands, stopping his frantic actions. Her hands moved to his face, touching the scar that run over his eye. It wasn’t too big, just a vertical line from his eyebrow to the bottom of the eyelid.

"This one is my fault isn’t it, I’m sorry for it."

Both his hands held her sides of her face, "for your life Bel, it was worth it."

She beckoned him and he accepted the command and leaned in, she kissed him. Long and passionate, it was just a thank you for saving her life, it was also a testament that she wanted to stay by his side forever if time allowed.

They were still at it when someone cleared their throat from behind him. Kiro had completely forgotten that he was right in front of his own house with his parents inside. He jumped and turned sharply.

"Dad!"

Sekani smiled awkwardly, "I have to run to the office, will I come back with you in the game already?"

"Why what happened?" Kiro had his eyebrow raised, the embarrassment he felt just moments ago all but gone.

"Nothing bad, we have been working to update the pod. So that a live feed follows a player no matter which world they go into, instead of the game deciding, it will be the player who decides whether to share their live feed.

"An audience where they can watch their favourite player, communicate with the player via a chat in the live feed. Maybe even send missions for the player to do and give them rewards once they finish it. Something like that."

Kiro always knew his father was smart, he just didn’t know by how much. This had great potential to not only make his family more money but to make money for players as well.

"We were also working on creating our own social media platform, created solely for live feeds from our pods. Where players can go live and even share their videos of their gameplay."

"You’ve been busy." He meant to congratulate him and tell him how much of a genius he was and how Blakeson Tech missed out on an employee that could’ve made them billions but it instead came out as this.

"Haha, yeah, so if you can wait a few hours. The update and the application will launch then." Sekani came closer and hugged, kissed his son in the forehead.

"Thank you for fighting to keep us safe, I’ll try my best to help you from what I can do. I’ll make the pods as comfortable as possible for you fighters."

Kiro nodded in appreciation, "thanks dad."

Sekani was already walking away.

"Hey dad, don’t name the app something weird, like my name!" He yelled after him, Sekani just laughed and kept on walking.

"Kiro, your dad is a genius." Isla finally said.

"He truly is one of a kind." His tone was sad, remembering how in another life he died without having realised any of his dreams.

"Where’s Alora? Surprised she isn’t attached to your hip now that you’re back." She took a sit where he had been sitting.

"Oh, she’s a big girl now. I’m sure she’s out playing with Isao somewhere in the estate or theirs."

Lazying around was so good Kiro didn’t want to go back but he knew there wasn’t a choice. So he promised himself he would be the laziest once everything was laid to rest.

"Ki, I’ve been thinking, can’t I come with you aswell? Felix can still come, I’m sure he won’t have a second to breathe, you’ll need someone who can deal damage from afar."

"I’m not going to lie, I’ve considered it too. But Bel, it is too late. Felix has been training nonstop even with me here, he hasn’t stopped to expand his pathways. I also left my clones there meditating."

Isla understood but she was still a little disappointed.

"Asgard still needs the guardians, we don’t know what is going to happen. They could open another portal while we are there, it will need you guys to defend."

She nodded in understanding.